Living in a new place, meeting all sorts of people and dreaming of what God wants to do excites me, energizes me and motivates me to explore. I have been meeting many great people who are desiring to do good and acknowledge God. The longer I live here, the more aware I become of the needs great and small. You see the strongholds that exist within the culture and patterns of lifestyle. I have often been asking myself how do I take steps towards what God is showing me? How do I discern from all that I see to what specifically is God asking me to join Him with? How do I be supportive and work with others within the city yet be aware of my own limitations with relationships, energy and time? I have had moments where there was victory and breakthrough in conversations and other moments of extreme disappointment and departing from someone unsure if I would work with them again. Through this, I am learning the difference between team and network, the need of both and the need to understand expectations from those around me as well as myself and what I can offer.

I believe biblically that team is important. Jesus sent the disciples out in 2s. The apostles worked as team seeking the Spirit’s leading in guiding the early church. I also grew up playing sports with a team. I love team. I want to be a team player. Why am I getting frustrated with team? I am learning the importance of distinguishing the relationships I have with different people and groups so that we can define to what level do we work together.

For the church plant end goal I am labouring towards I want and need a team. We, as a team, are looking to define the end goal and what it looks like at every level, the mission and purposes of why it exists, the values it is built upon and the goals and objectives accomplished at every stage. We have agreed doctrine of beliefs and how we believe to live them out. The team needs to define our language and culture and be living it out so that we can one team on one playing field with the same sport – the same model and methods. With this group we can collaborate at every level and have expectations of each other to work through every hurdle. We are committed to God, the work and each other.

As I am learning more about the different people who are labouring for the gospel, I am learning more about network. There are like-minded people who I respect, admire and learn from. Yet the reality is that they have a commitment to their work, their group of people and their way of doing things. We do have a common ground of theology and biblical principle where we can work together, brainstorm, process and learn from one another. We can facilitate a network of different denomination, different models and different methods so that we can see God’s glory displayed throughout the city with each of us doing our part.

There are some people I do not want to work with. I don’t want to be mean or judgmental. I love people and believe God can use anyone who is willing. Yet I can not partner to any extent with leaders who do not see Jesus as Lord and Savior or see the Bible as the authoritative Word of God. I will not compromise on the gospel and the commission that Jesus gave us. I will pray that God removes false teachers from the city. I can love and respect people, but I will not network with them and certainly not consider working on their team.

So here is some more food for thought with some of the different areas the Lord has been speaking to me and teaching me how to think and consider different aspects of church planting. May God help each of us grow a healthy team to work in the trenches with closely, a network within the city to allow for a greater unity of the body of believers to be displayed and discernment for relationships that do not need our time and energy.

Some of the lessons I continue to learn as I desire to the Kingdom expand!

”It’s not your old life you want back; it’s your old idols you want back, and I love you too much to give them back to you.”

A friend recently gave me a book entitled Jesus + Nothing = Everything. A man testifying to the gospel transforming him through a journey of obedience. When we follow God’s leading, there is the desire that everything will unfold smoothly yet that is not always the case. People who once fully supported a decision and direction will begin to question and sometimes even slander us. Change is not easy. Obedience is not easy as it often is counter cultural. When everything felt hard and there was no end in sight, the author cried out to God in weariness, fear and anger. The response was the quote above.

I am encouraged to be reminded that God loves me too much to allow myself to get caught up in all the ”what’s not” happenings around me and constantly inviting me to focus on the ”what is”. As I look to see a new church planted and thriving, I can find many reasons to be discouraged. It’s not moving fast enough. People don’t understand. How do I describe where we actually are today without exaggerating? Maybe some people no longer want a church plant. I don’t see this and I don’t see that. I want to describe the work so that I could look like I know what I am doing or so people can think some kind of way about me. If my mind stays focused on what is not, I find the need to defend, prove or justify something.

Instead the truth is that I can find so much encouragement by what is. As I look in the scriptures and observe how it worked over time, God was never in a rush. It always came back to what we have in Christ. The journey of making God known does not supersede my own walk with Jesus and daily being transformed by the gospel. How am I am modelling transformation so that those I am influencing see it and desire it? What idols am I longing to cling to rather than discovering deeper freedom in the gospel?

How does this relate to church planting? The current work in so many ways is encouraging. Yet when I look at what is not, my gaze and focus can be turned toward unhelpful concerns. Learning how keep my gaze focused on Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to remove idols that would hinder my own life from being transformed is a great place to be! If I desire a healthy growing church to exist, it begins with a community being transformed by the gospel and every member cultivating other discipleship relationships seeing the same thing. If the gospel is not transforming us as individuals or a community, then the desire for a church plant can become its own idol.

I don’t want my old life back and I know I don’t want idols in my life. May the Lord continue to have His way with me so that He may be glorified in whatever way it looks.